JPH06196267A - Illumination control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide nonfutile illumination control with little influence on human body by judging whether lamps are to be turned on or off immediately or some time later in consideration of the effect to the surrounding when the turning-on or off is instructed, and implementing it. CONSTITUTION:When a monitor terminal 3 detects the actions of switches 6-1, 6-2, it transmits the addresses of the switches and the terminal 3 itself to a main operation panel 1 via a transmission path 4. The main operation panel 1 retrieves a memory table 18 storing the addresses and the illumination states and judges whether lamps are to be turned on or off immediately or the dimming level is to be changed in sequence until the lamps are finally turned on or off based on at least the illumination state information of the adjacent area. A sequence dimming control means 16 sends the instruction information to control terminals 2-1, 2-2 for dimming control. A table control means 17 rewrites the information of the illumination state table of this address area.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lighting control system for controlling an illuminator such as a house or a building.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a control terminal device to which a lighting load such as a fluorescent lamp is connected, and a main operation panel for transmitting lighting condition control data for a required lighting load to the control terminal device to perform lighting control. A lighting control system connected via a transmission line is known. In this system, in recent years,
In order to perform the illumination control in consideration of the external light entering from the window, an optical sensor is provided, and the intensity data of the external light is captured and used for the illumination control.

Further, in the above-mentioned conventional lighting control system,
The control terminal immediately executes lighting / extinction when an instruction to turn on / off the illumination load in the controlled area is given. However, according to the above lighting control system, for a person in the area next to the area immediately turned on / off, the lighting in the adjacent area is suddenly turned on / off, so that glimmering eyes come in.
There was a problem of annoyance. Therefore, there is known a system in which, when the light is turned off from the lighting, the dimming level is gradually lowered so that it is not annoying that the light is turned off in the adjacent area.

[0004]

However, if the dimming level is gradually decreased only when the light is turned off from the light, the flickering at the time of lighting is worrisome when the light is turned on. In addition, since the light is gradually turned off at any time, there is a problem that useless control is performed when the driver is unattended.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the above-mentioned conventional lighting control system, and its purpose is to reduce the influence on the person by the lighting load that is turned on / off and to reduce the waste. An object of the present invention is to provide a lighting control system in which lighting control is performed.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a lighting load, a dimming unit for controlling the lighting load for each area, and a lighting state table in which lighting status information for each area of the lighting load is stored. Table management means for retrieving the information of the illumination status table by obtaining the illumination state for each area of the illumination load, switch means for instructing lighting / extinction of the illumination load for each area, and the switch means. In response to an instruction to turn on / off the light, the lighting load of the area is immediately turned on / off or the dimming level is sequentially changed based on the lighting state information of at least the adjacent area in the lighting state table. A sequential dimming control means for performing dimming control by giving lighting instruction information based on this determination to the dimming means, It was constructed of a light control system.

[0007]

According to the above construction, when there is an instruction to turn on / off the lighting load for each area by the switch means, the lighting state information of at least the adjacent areas of the illumination state table is received in response to the instruction. Based on this, it is determined whether the lighting load in the area is immediately turned on / off or whether the lighting level is changed by sequentially changing the dimming level, and lighting instruction information based on this judgment is given to the dimming means. The dimming control is performed. Here, the illumination state table stores illumination state information for each area of the illumination load, and it is possible to determine whether or not there is a person in the adjacent area. Using this information, the dimming level is sequentially changed only when necessary, and the process proceeds to lighting / extinguishing, and accurate lighting control is performed.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a lighting control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this lighting control system, the main operation panel 1, the control terminals 2-1 and 2-2, and the monitoring terminal 3 are connected by a transmission line 4. Control terminal 2
-1, 2-2, for example, a lighting load such as a fluorescent lamp 5-
1, 5-2 are connected, and the switch 6- is connected to the monitoring terminal 3.
1-6-2 (manual switch for turning on / off) is connected. Further, the control terminals 2-1, 2-2, the monitoring terminal 3, the lighting loads 5-1, 5-2, the switch 6-1.
6-2 are assigned addresses, and when the switches 6-1 to 6-2 are operated, the monitoring terminal device 3 transmits the address of the switch and the address of the own terminal to the transmission line 4
To the main operation panel 1 via. The main operation panel 1 is composed of, for example, a microcomputer, and addresses of control terminals and their lighting loads and lighting states (predetermined dimming of dimming and stepwise dimming) corresponding to addresses of monitoring terminals and their switches. And a memory table in which the luminosity and the like are stored, and the memory table is searched based on the address sent from the monitoring terminal device 3 and consists of the lighting condition and the address of the control terminal device and the lighting load to be controlled. The control data is transmitted to the transmission line 4. The corresponding control terminal device takes in the control data when the address is the same as that of its own terminal, and causes the corresponding lighting state to appear for the lighting load having the corresponding address.

Further, a sensor terminal 10 is connected to the transmission line 4 and a light sensor 11 detects the light amount in order to perform lighting control based on the light amount of external light with respect to a predetermined lighting load of the predetermined control terminal device. This is a configuration for automatically responding to the fact that indirect light from the sunlight enters the illumination target position and the amount of light changes between day and night, or between a sunny day and a cloudy day. With this configuration, a light amount signal is obtained from the optical sensor 11, and correspondingly, control data such as continuous dimming control of a lighting load, step dimming control, and lighting / extinguishing control is transmitted from the main operation panel 1. Is configured.

Further, a volume VR for dimming is connected to the control terminals 2-1 and 2-2, and in the case of dimming by manual operation, the control terminals 2-1 and 2-2.
Takes in and holds the data of this volume and uses it for dimming control, and also sends it to the main operation panel 1 to notify the state of its own device. Therefore, the control terminals 2-1 and 2-
2 is provided with a memory for storing control data for performing lighting control of its own device, and the main operation panel 1 stores control data used by all the control terminals 2-1 and 2-2. A memory (lighting state table 18) is provided. Further, on the main operation panel 1, a table management unit 17 for obtaining the illumination state for each area of the illumination load and rewriting the information of the illumination state table 18, and the illumination loads 5-1 and 5-.
2 is turned on / off for each area by receiving a turn-on / turn-off instruction by switches 6-1 and 6-2 which are switch means, and based on the illumination state information of at least the adjacent area of the illumination state table 18, It is determined whether the lighting load in the corresponding area is immediately turned on / off or whether the lighting control is sequentially turned on / off by changing the dimming level, and the lighting instruction information based on this determination is used to control the terminal 2
Sequential dimming control means 1 for giving dimming control to 1 and 2-2
6 is provided.

FIG. 2 shows a specific structure of the main operation panel 1.
A processor 112 is connected to a transmission line interface 111 which is connected to the transmission line 4 and which transmits and receives signals, formats data, and separates formatted data. The processor 112 includes a ROM, a RAM, etc., and is connected to a memory 113 for storing programs and data used by the processor 112. The processor 112 is provided with an oscillator 11 for supplying a reference clock.
4. An initial reset circuit 115 is connected to give a reset to the processor 112 at the initial stage when a predetermined voltage is applied when the power is turned on. Further, the processor 11
2 to the display controller 1 via the I / O port 116
17 and is connected to the operation panel unit 119 via the I / O port 118. Display controller 117
Is connected to a display unit (LCD or the like) 120. In the memory 113, in addition to the illumination state table 18 in which control data indicating which illumination state is to be displayed for which illumination load is stored corresponding to each control terminal 2, various memory tables, Includes registers and flags.

FIG. 3 shows a detailed structure of the control terminal 2. Also in this control terminal device 2, a processor 31 is connected to a transmission line interface 32 which is connected to the transmission line 4 and which transmits and receives signals, formats data, and separates formatted data. To the processor 31, a volume VR relating to dimming control is connected via an input port 34, and dimming control units 36 and 37 are connected via an output port 35. The processor 31 further includes a memory 3 for storing control data and the like.
3 is connected, and the processor 31 controls each unit using the program and data in the memory 33. A lighting load is connected to the dimming control units 36 and 37.

In normal processing, the device for notifying the states of the sensor terminal 10, the monitoring terminal 3, etc., the main operation panel 1, and the control terminal 2 perform the following operations. That is, the sensor terminal device 10, the monitoring terminal device 3, and the like detect the states of the sensors and switches provided corresponding to them, and hold the data related to the detection results. In addition, the main control panel 1
The data held by the sensor terminal 10 and the monitoring terminal 3 is collected by periodic polling, and the control data is created based on the collected data and stored in the memory 113. On the other hand, whether or not control data needs to be transmitted is detected, and if necessary, an address is added and transmitted. Further, the control terminal device 2 controls the illumination by using the control data stored in the memory 33 while waiting for the arrival of the control data. When the control data arrives, the memory 33 is rewritten using the control data, and the lighting control is performed using the new control data in the memory 33.

FIG. 4 shows a more detailed block diagram of the inside of the main operation panel 1 according to this embodiment. A timer 19 is attached to the sequential dimming control means 16. In addition, the illumination state table 18 stores illumination state information for each area. Here, the one floor of a building is surrounded by a wall 60 as shown in FIG. 6, and nine control terminals 2 individually control nine areas.
That is, although the area is wide and narrow, areas 1 to 9 are illuminated by the illumination load 5 in each area. Therefore, the illumination state table 18 also stores illumination state information for each of the nine areas. The main operation panel 1 is also provided with a dimming control register 22 in sequence. In this sequential dimming control register 22, in correspondence with the area for performing sequential dimming,
Information on the dimming level and the classification of lighting (UP) / lighting-out (DOWN) is written. Furthermore, on the main operation panel 1, when a switch for turning on / off in each area is operated,
A reference area table 23 is provided which stores areas for obtaining illumination information to be referred to when it is determined whether to turn on / off immediately or to change the dimming level to turn on / off. In this example, basically,
The illumination states of the adjacent areas are referred to. However, since the area 1 is large, the illumination states of all areas are referred to when the lighting load here is controlled to be turned on / off. The sequential dimming control means 16 receives an instruction to turn on / off the switch 6 and obtains, from the reference area table 23, an area to be referred to for the corresponding area. The lighting condition table 18 is searched for the obtained area to obtain the lighting condition information. Based on this lighting information, it is determined whether the lighting load in the corresponding area is immediately turned on / off or whether the lighting control is sequentially changed to turn on / off. For example, if even one area is in a lighting state, or if it is illuminated at a predetermined dimming level or higher, it is determined to be sequentially dimming control. The lighting instruction information (control data including the dimming level) based on this determination is output to the transmission path 4 together with the address of the corresponding control terminal 2 to perform dimming control.

The control by each of the above means is actually performed by the processor 112 of the main operation panel 1 operating using the program of the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 in the memory 113, which will be described. Processor 1
12 is a switch 6 from the monitoring terminal 3 via the transmission line 4.
It is detected whether or not ON / OFF control for the illumination load of the predetermined area is performed by (501). here,
When the on / off control for the lighting load in the predetermined area is performed, from the target area related to the on / off control,
A reference area is searched using the reference area table 23 shown in FIG. 4 (502). For the reference area obtained as a result of the search, the illumination state table 18 is referred to obtain illumination state information, and, for example, it is said that even one area is in a lighting state, or that it is illuminated at a predetermined dimming level or higher. Whether or not the dimming control is sequentially required is detected by detecting whether or not the conditions such as conditions are met in advance (504).

In the above, for example, when there is no light in any of the reference areas and there is no person, the process proceeds to step 511 and the control data is sent to the corresponding control terminal unit 5 so as to be turned on / off immediately. Send (51
1) Then, the illumination state information is written in the corresponding area of the illumination state table 18 (512), which is the end. In contrast,
When it is detected that sequential dimming control is necessary, the area to be dimmed, whether to increase or decrease the dimming degree,
The current dimming level is sequentially written corresponding to the vacant area of the dimming control register 22 (505), the timer 19 is started (506), and a predetermined time (a person is illuminated It is monitored whether or not 0.5 seconds) has elapsed, for example, at the time of not noticing the change of (507).
After a lapse of a predetermined time, control data is transmitted so as to change the dimming level by a predetermined amount (each time the change in illuminance is not noticeable to a person), and the lighting state based on this is sent to the lighting state table 18, and , The dimming level is sequentially written to the dimming register 22 (508), it is checked whether the dimming has progressed to the limit, that is, the lighting / extinguishing state (509), while detecting the end of the dimming control (510). , Steps 507 to 510 are repeated. When the sequential dimming control is finished, the illumination state information is stored in the illumination state table 18.
Write to the corresponding area of, and control register 2 for dimming control sequentially
The required area of 2 is cleared (512) to end.

In the embodiment, the control data is sent in sequence, but in other embodiments, from the main control panel 1,
Only control data indicating which control method is adopted is sent, and the control terminal 5 side sequentially performs dimming control or immediate lighting / extinguishing control. By controlling in this way, it is possible to secure more free time in the transmission path 4. Further, for example, by defining only the adjacent areas as the reference areas, the reference area table 23 is not always necessary, and conversely, the areas are not close to each other by the reference area table, but are affected by turning on / off. Lighting conditions can be taken into account.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, when there is an instruction to turn on / off the lighting load for each area by the switch means, at least the illumination state table is received in response to the instruction. Based on the lighting status information of the adjacent area, it is determined whether the lighting load of the area is immediately turned on / off or whether the lighting level is turned on / off by sequentially changing the dimming level. Since the dimming control is performed by giving the instruction information to the dimming unit, there is little effect on the person due to the lighting load that is turned on / off, and there is an effect that the lighting control is performed without waste.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a lighting control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a main operation panel according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a main part of a lighting control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an illumination target area in a room due to a lighting load.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Main operation panel 2-1, 2
-2 control terminal device 3 monitoring terminal device 4 transmission line 5-1, 5-2 lighting load 10 sensor terminal device 11 optical sensor 16 sequential dimming control means 17 table management means 18 illumination state table 19 timer 22 for sequential dimming control Register 23 Reference area table

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A lighting load, a dimming unit for performing dimming control of the lighting load for each area, a lighting state table in which lighting status information for each area of the lighting load is stored, and for each area of the lighting load. Table management means for retrieving the illumination state table information and rewriting the information of the illumination state table, switch means for instructing lighting / extinction for each area of the illumination load, and receiving a lighting / extinction instruction by the switch means. Then, based on the illumination state information of at least the adjacent area of the illumination state table, whether to immediately turn on / off the illumination load of the area or whether to sequentially turn on / off the dimming level is determined. A lighting control system comprising: a determination and a sequential dimming control means for performing dimming control by giving illumination instruction information based on this determination to the dimming means. Beam. 2. The sequential dimming control means is provided with a timer means, and the sequential dimming control means refers to the timer means when performing control to sequentially change the dimming level to turn on / off the light. The lighting control system according to claim 1, wherein the lighting instruction information is output so that the dimming level is changed by a predetermined step every predetermined time. 3. The sequential dimming control means has an area to which the illumination state is to be referred when deciding whether to immediately perform lighting / extinction or sequentially change the dimming level to reach lighting / extinction. The illumination control system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a reference area table stored for each is provided, and the illumination state of the area is referred to according to the table.